


On the Other Side of the Tunnel

by hypereuni



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brother Feels, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, One Shot, stuff i write at 1 in the morning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 00:31:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18981505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypereuni/pseuds/hypereuni
Summary: On the morning after Six's death, Six shows up at his usual spot at breakfast. He doesn't seem to notice the stifling atmosphere surrounding the dinner table. Nor does he seem to care that Five was peppering his bacon with uncharacteristic zeal, or that Vanya's eyes are nearly swollen shut. Six just stares sadly at Vanya's untouched plate of sunny-side up eggs, bacon and toast, and then at the empty placemat in front of him.One-shot.





	On the Other Side of the Tunnel

On the morning after Six's death, Six shows up at his usual spot at breakfast. He doesn't seem to notice the stifling atmosphere surrounding the dinner table. Nor does he seem to care that Five was peppering his bacon with uncharacteristic zeal, or that Vanya's eyes are nearly swollen shut. Six just stares sadly at Vanya's untouched plate of sunny-side up eggs, bacon and toast, and then at the empty placemat in front of him.

“Pass me the salt shaker, Four,” Five orders imperiously, breaking the heavy silence. He ignores their father’s stony-eyed disapproval radiating down from the head of the table. Klaus just looks up at him, confused.

“Why are you asking me?” Klaus asks, bewildered. “Ask Six to pass it to you. It’s on his side, anyway.”

There is a heavier silence at the table, and Klaus immediately knows he’s fucked up, although he doesn’t really understand why. It’s only until their father stands up from the table that Klaus realizes the magnitude of his blunder.

Of course, nobody can see Six but Klaus, because Six was dead. Go figure.

“Come, Four,” Dad says, tone deceptively mild. When Klaus doesn’t move, the old man's gimlet eyes narrow behind the wire-rimmed glasses. “Come, I said.”

And so Klaus pushes back his chair and miserably follows the old man out of the dining room, through meandering corridors and secret doors. They stop in front of the small mausoleum in the garden outside. Dad bends down to unlock the door, with a click and a groan, the marble door swings inwards.

“I seem to recall saying that mealtimes are meant to be quiet affairs,” the old man says softly. “You know what happens when you break the rules, don’t you?”

Klaus blanches. “I won’t do it again, Dad,” he says desperately. “Really. I swear.”

But Dad has that calculating gleam in his eyes, which can only mean one thing. “Two hours should do the trick,” the man says. He gives Klaus a sudden, hard shove, and Klaus topples headfirst into the abyss that awaits him.

He hits the marble floor hard. More bruises will probably pop up on his knees and shins and join the ones already there, which is a pity because those were beginning to fade. Something whispers in his ear, and he instinctively shuts his eyes before he sees the spirit materialize in front of him. The dead are more active in the shadows, and in the cool darkness of the crypt, they flourish.

Klaus hates this place, and Dad knows it.

“I expect you to reflect on your wrongdoings while you’re in there, Klaus,” Klaus hears the old man's distorted voice float from above. "The other children are already on edge, and I can't afford to have another failure on my hands."

Klaus, something breathes, and Klaus whimpers, squeezing his eyes tighter. He presses his back against the cold marble wall. “Dad, please let me out. I’m sorry, it was my fault, just please let me out of here—“

But nobody answers, and Klaus knows that the old man has left him.

"Dad?" He calls again, just to make sure.

"Dad?"

“Dad, please—“

KLaUs, something wails in his ear, KLAUS, and Klaus screams in terror. Then the other voices chime in, melding together in a cacophony of despair and grief and pain.

KLAUUSSS, they roar, and Klaus stuffs his fingers into his ears and starts to hum loudly.

 

(It doesn’t work, though. It never has.)

 

He loses track of time, sitting in the dark. The spirits lose interest after a while and they stop bothering him for the most part. He flinches when something cold touches his ear. Ghostly laughter fills his ears and he nearly pees.

“Coward,” someone mutters, a familiar voice, and Klaus wants to cry tears of joy.

“Six?”

He hears a scoff behind him, and he turns around, squinting into the darkness. “Six?” He calls out. “Six, is that you?”

No one responds.

“Six? Ben?” He tries when nothing appears, and his brother materializes out of thin air.

“Coward,” Six’s muffled voice says. Six is curled up defensively into a ball like a roly-poly, as if that could ward off the other shadows and wraiths that hover around them.

“What’s the point of being able to see the dead if you don’t do anything about it?” Six mumbles. “You’re useless. You’re no better than Vanya.”

Stung, Klaus opens his mouth to deliver a sharp rejoinder about the sordid details of the other boy’s death when he hears Six sniffle loudly into the sleeves of his oversized jumper.

“I hate this,” Six confesses in a small voice. And to Klaus’s horror, Six, no, Ben—little, stoic Ben—begins to sob: big, fat tears that cascade down his cheeks and vanish before they hit the ground. Ben never cries, not even when he summons the monster that makes Luther shit his pants.

Klaus is so shocked that he forgets about being frightened.

“It’s dark and cold and I’m scared,” Ben blubbers. “I want to go home, Klaus. I want to have Mom’s orange juice and French toast and finish the trilogy that I just started. I’m only on page 50, and now I can’t even turn the pages because I’m dead. It’s not fair.” He sniffles again.

“I can bring you books,” Klaus’s mouth blurts out before his brain can process it, and he immediately regrets it, because--well, because he and Ben never really got along, and it was much too late to try and strike up a friendship when the one thing Klaus excelled at was making enemies out of his siblings, and --

\--“You will?” Ben asks, and he sounds so goddamn hopeful and pure and fragile that Klaus doesn’t have the heart to take his words back.

“...Yeah," Klaus promises. "I will."

* * *

 

AN: I posted this on Tumblr a while ago, and I never got around to saving it here. I still haven't gotten around to watching the last few episodes, so if anything clashes with canon, just roll with it, hahaha. Anyway, please leave a review! I'm trying to expand my horizons and write for fandoms other than Naruto, so I'd appreciate any feedback ^^

 


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